Mountain Man

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This was the result of a collision between a somewhat-puerile 'bloke’s joke', and one of the finest pieces of music by Norway’s most famous composer.

It opens with a Morricone-esque harmonica wailing. The timpani-led staccato stabs that follow felt like they required a John Barry/Bond theme type treatment. The chorus lines of “Up We Go” and “Keep It Up” are followed by suitably ascending rejoinders from the orchestra. Then comes the ”Bauhaus bit” - it was originally very sparse and minimal and it reminded me of “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”, but the four chords descending in semitone steps (C, B, Bb, A) were actually prompted by Grieg’s score.

Playing these chords on a nylon string guitar I accidentally discovered the “flamenco” bit - by holding a Bb major in a standard “E” shape, but instead of using the index finger to barre the chord, use it just to hold down the 2nd string, letting the open E on the first string ring as part of the arpeggio. I have no idea what this chord is called, but it sounds great as you drop it down a semitone to the tonic A, keeping that open E.

We are then into the main theme - Edvard Grieg’s “In The Hall Of The Mountain King” - to which the verse lyrics are sung. I assigned Deb Thomas, all-round stunt vocalist and Nashville professional, the job of singing the parts of the “Valley Women”. It sounds like she enjoyed herself!

The diverse instrumentation includes blockflute, melodian, chime trees, percussion, brass and strings. This and the rollercoaster tempo changes made it quite a challenge.
Upon completion, mastering engineer Rick O’Neil texted me “You are always a mystery, Mr Bond”!



MCM on BANDCAMP 


MCM on SPOTIFY




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